PHP Comment Forms

The best way to add interactivity to your site with PHP is by adding a comment form.The only difference this time is that we'll be using the mail() function, which is what sends the user's input to your email address.

First, we create the HTML form:

<form action="formmail.php" method="post">
Name: <input type="text" name="name"><br>

Email: <input type="text" name="email"><br>
Comments: <textarea name="comments"></textarea><br>
<input type="submit">
</form>

Then we create the "formmail.php" file:

<?php

// your email address
$youremail = "kali@xentrik.net";

// field validation
if ($email=="" || $comments=="" || $name=="")

{
print ("All fields are required! Please go back and try again.");
}

else {

// send email
$headers = "From: \"$name\" <$email>\n";
$subject = "Feedback Form"; 
$message = "$comments";

mail ("$youremail", "$subject", $message, $headers);
print ("Thank you $name, your email has been sent.");

} 
?>

Now, what does it mean?

$youremail = "kali@xentrik.net";
You should be familiar with this part. Here we're setting the variable "$youremail" to your email address.

if ($email=="" || $comments=="" || $name=="")
Here we're saying "if the $email, $comments or $name fields are empty, perform the action defined between the {} tags." In PHP code, || is an operator which means "or." We use two equals signs (==) when we're comparing, rather than assigning.

else {
This says "if the above statement is false (none of the fields are empty), then do the following:"

$headers = "From: \"$name\" <$email>\n";
$subject = "Feedback Form";
$message = "$comments";
Here we're defining the variables needed to send the email. $headers displays who the email is sent from in the "From" field of the email. $subject sets the subject of the email, you can set it as anything you want, as you're the only one who will see it. $message is the body of the email.

mail ("$youremail", "$subject", $message, $headers);
This part sends the variables we defined above as an email.

That's it, a simple formmail script, ready to go. However, it is a good idea to include an email address verification function, to make sure the user puts in a valid email address. To do that, we add this bit of code after the else { line:

// email validation
if(!eregi('^([._a-z0-9-]+[._a-z0-9-]*)@(([a-z0-9-]+\.)*([a-z0-9-]+)(\.[a-z]{2,3})?)$', $email)) {
print ("Your email address does not appear to be valid. Please go back and try again.");
exit;
}

This says "If $email is not in a name@domain.com format, perform the print() function stated."

So, just so you're not confused, here is what the code all together looks like:

<?php

// your email address
$youremail = "kali@xentrik.net";

// field validation
if ($email=="" || $comments=="" || $name=="")

{
print ("All fields are required! Please go back and try again.");
}

else {

// email validation
if(!eregi('^([._a-z0-9-]+[._a-z0-9-]*)@(([a-z0-9-]+\.)*([a-z0-9-]+)(\.[a-z]{2,3})?)$', $email)) {
print ("Your email address does not appear to be valid. Please go back and try again.");
exit;
}

// send email
$headers = "From: \"$name\" <$email>\n";
$subject = "Feedback Form"; 
$message = "$comments";

mail ("$youremail", "$subject", $message, $headers);
print ("Thank you $name, your email has been sent.");

} 
?>